The dark side of Tinder

She had arranged to meet up with a 25-year-old named Jake. She met him on Tinder.

Excited after testing their compatibility online, she waited outside the front of her local Subway store for over an hour before he arrived.

“He seemed nice at first glance,” she told The Newsroom. “I texted him earlier to say that it was cold, and so he offered me a ride. Little did she know, that Jake had no intention of giving her a lift home. As his Ford zoomed past her street, she began to panic. Adrenalin rushed through her veins, and her scalp prickled. Her stomach had bundled itself into knots. She began to contemplate the possibility of not being dropped home. “I knew that when he changed course I was in trouble,” she said. “He drove us away from Melton, to somewhere near Tullamarine.”

The man pulled his car onto the grass adjacent to the airport and proceeded to make a move on her. Drawing her bottle of deodorant from her handbag, she threw it at his temple and ran out of the car. But the man was fast, he was already out of the car and advancing on her.

“He stank of tobacco and alcohol,” she said.

The victim decided against informing the police of what happened next. She is naturally a guarded and silent person, with a horrific past of being sexually molested by her father’s friend at the age of 11.

“I believe that he will get his punishment some day,” she said. “It’s not mine or anyone else’s job to play God. One day, he will get what’s coming to him. Until then, I will continue to live my life to the fullest and try to forget about this whole ordeal.”

Tinder might be the latest dating fad, but it carries the same risk as other sites where girls and guys flock to meet. Users have been advised to take necessary precautions when they intend to meet the person face to face, such as informing a friend or family member of where it is they are planning to go, and roughly what time they have arranged to meet the person. They are also advised to keep their phones on them at all times. It is strongly recommended that the person meets their match in a public place, that way they are less likely to make a move with eyes constantly watching.

Recently, Tinder was under fire for an alleged sexual assault of a 21-year-old girl, who met up with her Tinder date in Adelaide. Though the details are sketchy, the incident occurred almost a month ago. The girl was reluctant to report the incident, but her friends persuaded her to seek help from the police. The case has since been withdrawn.

“The reluctance of women to label forced intercourse as rape is evident in the research finding that only 43 per cent of victims experience abuse meeting the legal definition of rape actually acknowledge the experience as rape,” Constable John Roberts told The Newsroom. “Also, women who did not acknowledge their sexual assault as rape were more likely to have been unmarried students at the time of their assault,” he said. – Reported and photographed by Sarah Batt